 | Term | Definition |
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Monotheism |
Having faith in a single god |
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Phoenicans |
Seafaring people (Canaanites and Syrians) who scattered trading colonies from one end of the mediterraean to the other |
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Hyksos |
Foreign Chiefs |
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Djoser |
Pharoh who inaugurated the construction of the pyrimids |
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Aramaic |
Semitic language spoken widely throughout the Middle East in antiquity |
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Cyrus |
King of Persians; expanded the Persian Empire from Afghanistan to the Aegean Sea |
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Nebuchadnezzor |
Babylonian king who built the Neo-Babylonian empire |
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Hieroglyphs |
"Sacred Carvings"; Greek name for Egyptian writing |
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Nefertiti |
Sole mediator between Aten (sun disk god) and Egyptians; Aumunhotep's (Akhenatens) wife |
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Akhenaten (Amunhoptep) |
Pharoh who made worship to only Aten possible |
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Paleolithic Age |
"Old Stone Age"; First use of stone tools until about 10,000 B.C.E. |
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Culture |
Way of life invented by a group and passed on by teaching |
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Neolithic Age |
"New Stone Age"; About 10,000 years ago marked by advances in the production of stone tools. Shift from hunting and gathering to agriculture |
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Civilization |
Stage in evolution of organized society that has among its characteristics urbanism, long-distance trade, writing systems, and accelerated technoligical and social development |
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Bronze Age |
3100-1200 B.C.E.; Began with increasing importance of metal; Ended Stone Age |
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Sargon |
Built history's first empire by conquering all the Sumerian cities |
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Cuneiform |
Developed by Sumerians as the very first writing system ever used; it used several thousand characters, some of which stood for words and some for sounds |
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Polytheists |
Worship more than one god or goddess |
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Nomes |
Egyptian districts ruled by regional governors who were called Nomarchs |
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Minoan |
Civilization of Crete (2100-1150 B.C.E.) and the Aegean's first civilization, named for a legendary king on the island |
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Mycenaean |
Civilization occupying mainland Greece during the Late Helladic era |
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Illiad |
Homer's poem narrates a dispute between Agamemnon the king and his warrior Achilles, whose honor is wounded and then avenged |
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Odyssey |
Homer's epic poem tells of the wanderings of the hero Odysseus |
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Thetes |
Greek commoners, small farmers |
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Arete |
The highest virtue in Homeric society; the manliness, courage, and excellence that equipped a hero to acquire and defend honor |
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Penelope |
Odysseus's wife |
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Clytemnestra |
The epitome of female evil; Agamemnon's wife |
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Polis |
Greek city-state |
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Acropolis |
At the center of the city of Athens, the most famous example of a citadel |
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Agora |
Place for the markets and political assemblies |
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Hoplite |
A true infantry soldier that began to dominate the battlefield in the late eighth century B.C.E. |
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Phalanx |
Tight military formation of men eight or more ranks deep |
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Magna Graecia |
"Great Greece"; The areas in southern Italy and Sicily where many Greek colonies were established |
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Panhellenic (All Greek) |
Sense of cultural identity that all Greeks felt in common with one other |
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Pelopennesus |
Southern half of the Greek peninsula |
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Helots |
Slaves to the Spartans that revolted and nearly destroyed Sparta in 650 B.C.E. |
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The Peloponnesian League |
Sparta and its allies |
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Archons |
Magistrates who administered the polis |
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Attica |
Region (about 1,000 square miles) that Athens dominated |
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Areopagus |
Council heading Athen's government comprised of a group of nobles that annually chose the nine archons, the magistrates who administered the polis |
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Clisthenes |
Rallied Athenians against the Spartans |
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Demes |
Local political units |
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Poseidon |
God of the sea |
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Zeus |
Leader of the gods |
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Symposium |
A men's drinking party at the center of aristocratic social life in Archaic Greece |
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Hubris |
Arrogance produced by excessive wealth or good fortune |
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Ionia |
Western coast of Asia Minor |
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Themistocles |
Made Greece a naval power |
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Xerxes |
Persian leader who invaded Greece |
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479 B.C.E. |
Greeks defeat Perisan army at Plataea |
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Delian League |
Pact joined in by Athenians and other Greeks to continue the war with Persia |
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Peloponnesian Wars |
Series of wars between Athens and Sparta |
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Academy |
School founded by Plato in Athens to train statesmen and citizens |
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Lyceum |
School founded by Aristotle in Athens that focused on the gathering and analysis of data from all fields of knowledge |
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Hellenistic |
Term that describes the cosmopolitan civilization, established under the Macedonians, that combined aspects of Greek and Middle Eastern cultures |
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Epicureans |
People who believed the proper pursuit of humankind is undisturbed withdrawal from the world |
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Stoics |
People who sought freedom from passion and harmony with nature |
